IROCKU Piano Tips

irocku / September 16, 2020

Spicing Up The Blues: Alternative Blues Chord Changes

There are many ways to play the blues. The most common is the standard 12-bar blues comprised of the I-IV-V chord. But there are a lot of other options at our finger tips to make the blues more interesting and fresh, and to give ourselves a greater blues vocabulary to work with on the piano. In this video, we will explore these options and provide you with a blues toolkit that will provide you with endless opportunities to explore the blues. We begin the video by laying down the foundation for a standard 12 bar blues in C. We expand this standard 12-bar blues by introducing single-note chromatic approaches using dominant chords from above and below the destination chord. We then add two-note approaches. This sounds easy enough, but to perform this you will need to master all the chords and …

irocku / July 27, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Upper Structure Chords

Upper Structure Chords are a great way to add flair to your chord voicings. An Upper Structure Chord is a chord that you add on top of the root chord. In this video we use the dominant 7th chord as the root chord. Playing the root chord in your left hand, you can then go up chromatically adding major chords with your right hand. The chords that work best don’t have the 4th(or 11th) or the major 7th because they can clash with the 3rd and dominant 7th of the root; the 3rd and dominant 7th being the notes that define the root chord. You can also try adding minor chords over the root chord. Try playing the Upper Structure Chords in different inversions or you can use them in your improvisations by arpeggiating them. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. Find a few Upper Structure …

irocku / July 1, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Walking Bass Lines

How many bass players does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, the piano player can do it with his left hand. In this IROCKU Tip we'll learn how to play walking bass lines with our left hand. Walking bass lines are used throughout rock, jazz, and blues. For the chord progression in this lesson, we use the E twelve-bar blues progressions. As piano players we like to play in the key of C but if you are playing in a band, guitarists prefer playing in the keys of E or A. It’s pretty rare for a guitarist to call out a blues song in C so as keyboardists we need to learn the guitar keys. In this video we teach how to create your own walking bass lines using a quarter-note groove. We start out with a walking bass line using just the root and fifth of each chord. We then add lower …

irocku / June 14, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Half Step Approaches

One way to create movement and color to a chord progression is by inserting a chord that anticipates the next chord. The half-step approach is when the anticipating chord has a chromatic approach to the new chord. One place where this works well is in a I-IV-V progression when moving from the IV to the V chord. For example in the key of C, the V chord is the G and the IV chord is the F. So when moving from the G chord to the G chord(or vice versa) you would insert a Gb on the ‘+’ of the fourth beat of the G chord. The half step approach provides a lot of options to spice up a blues or pop progression. Levels: Intermediate-Advanced. IROCKU Piano Tips cover piano techniques and fundamentals, improvisation, rhythm and groove, progressions, rhythm patterns, piano accompaniment, …

irocku / May 20, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Dominant 9th Chords

This week’s IROCKU Piano Tip looks at 9th chords, in particular, Dominant 9th chords. Dominant 9th chords are extensions of dominant 7th chords that can help open up your playing. Dominant 9th chords are very common in blues and rock. In this video we show the Dominant 9th chord and we also teach the flatted 9th chord which is a useful passing chord when playing blues and rock. We also introduce the sharp 9th, AKA the Jimi Hendrix chord, which adds richness to your rock and blues playing. The video begins by teaching the dominant 9th chords in C, F, and G and then teaches the flat 9th and the sharp 9th chords. The flat 9th chord feels like a passing chord and works best in that context. The flat 9th without its root note is actually a diminished chord; and diminished chords are great …

irocku / May 9, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Little Richard’s Rock Piano Techniques

In Don McLean’s song, “American Pie”, the lyric “when the music died” refers to the plane crash that killed early rockers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Well we feel the music died again today, with the death of rock pioneer, Little Richard. Not only did Little Richard bring us straight up, four-to-the-floor rock and roll, as a poor black gay kid from Macon, Ga he broke every possible social and ethnic barrier you could imagine along the way. This IROCKU Tip celebrate’s Little Richard’s keyboard style with a twelve-bar blues progression using his straight eighth-note left hand pattern and explosive right hand rhythms. We begin the lesson with an overview of the 12 bar blues progression (in C) that was the foundation of so many Little Richard songs, such as "Lucille". We then introduce …

irocku / May 8, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tips – ii-V-I Progression with Extended Chord Voicings

This week’s IROCKU Piano Tip looks at the ii-V-I chord progression with Extended Chord Voicings. The ii-V-I chord progression is one of the most common progressions in modern music, particularly jazz. This chord pattern is useful in turn-arounds or whenever you are looking to resolve to the I chord. In this video we highlight one specific ii-V-I piano pattern with Extended Chord Voicings that minimizes hand movements, making it useful for accompaniment. The video begins by teaching the diatonic chords related to the key (in this video we use the key of C) and shows how the ii-V-I triads are derived. We teach how to color the chords by extending the triads to include 7ths, 9ths, and 13ths in their root position. We then teach these three extended chords in different positions to …

irocku / April 28, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tips – Chord Extensions

This week’s IROCKU Piano Tip looks at Chord Extensions. Chord Extensions are the notes outside of a chord that you can use to enhance the chord. The video begins by adding the dominant 7th note to a chord, and then adds the 9th along with showing the different chord inversions. We explore the 9th by raising it up a half step to the sharp 9th and by lowering it a half step to the flat 9th to add harmonic tension and funky variations to your chords. The video then introduces these chord extensions into a 12 bar jazz/blues progression in C: I7- V7-I7-I7 IV7-IV7-I7-VI7 II7-V7-I7-I7 The video goes through the progression using just dominant 7th chords, then using 9th chords and then adds in sharp 9ths and flatted 9ths to add even more color. The video ends with an introduction …

irocku / April 20, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tips – Anticipating the Beat

This week’s IROCKU Piano Tip looks at a specific type of syncopation, namely, anticipating the first beat. We show how to anticipate the first chord or note of the next measure by playing it ahead of the downbeat. This helps drive the groove of the song forward. This exercise starts by locking in quarter notes to the beat of a metronome. We then play quarter notes but we don’t play on the first beat, only on beats 2, 3, and 4. For the next step of this exercise we play eighth notes, again not playing on the first beat. Then we play quarter notes in the left hand while playing eighth notes in the right hand and anticipate the chord changes by changing chords in the right hand on the ‘and’ of the fourth beat. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and =>change to the next chord Finally we switch …

irocku / April 13, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Improvisation Exercise

This week’s IROCKU Piano Tip provides an exercise to learn how to separate your two hands so they can work independently, playing two different things at the same time. An essential ingredient of improvisation. This video begins with an exercise you can practice anywhere with each hand tapping independently on your lap. Not only is this a practical way to practice but it facilitates the learning process by focusing your attention on the rhythm. The video then takes this exercise to the piano based on a simple three-note New Orleans syncopated groove in the left hand. Over that groove we play a whole-note scale in the right hand, then we play the scale in half-notes in the right hand, than quarter-notes, then eighth-notes, and finally eighth-note triplets. Once you are able to smoothly …

irocku / April 6, 2020

IROCKU Piano Tip – Voice Leading

This week's IROCKU Piano Tip looks at using Voice Leading to smoothly connect your movements within chord progressions. In this video we show the value of knowing the different chord inversions and shapes in anticipating your movements and creating smooth transitions from chord to chord. As an example we use I, V, vi, IV chord progression commonly used in rock and pop. This is similar to the progression used in hundreds of pop and rock songs including "Beast of Burden" by the Rolling Stones, "All to Well" by Taylor Swift, "Let it Be" by the Beatles, "With or Without You" by U2, "No Woman No Cry" by Bob Marley, on and on... In our example we use the key of E; so the progression is E (I), B(V), C#m (vi), A (IV). Practice this progression, efficiently moving from chord to chord using the …

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